A large number of diagnostic and interventional procedures involve the percutaneous introduction of instrumentation into a vein or artery. For example, coronary angioplasty, angiography, atherectomy, stenting of arteries, and many other procedures often involve accessing the vasculature through a catheter placed in the femoral artery or other blood vessel. Once the procedure is completed and the catheter or other instrumentation is removed, bleeding from the punctured artery must be controlled.
Tissue tract preparation prior to advancement of extravascular devices, such as depth markers or delivery tools, is important to the outcome of the closure procedure. For example, there may be times where a 12 Fr tool must be advanced into a tissue tract created by a 4 Fr to 8 Fr access sheath. As a result, the tissue tract must be prepared to receive the 12 Fr tool. Currently, tissue tracts are prepared using common surgical scalpels that do not allow a surgeon to create consistent tissue tract incisions and do not allow a surgeon to make accurately sized incisions.
Thus, there is a need for a device that will allow a user to create the same tissue tract incisions. Moreover, there is a need for a device which will allow a user to create accurate tissue tract incisions.